Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-03-24 | Page 8 | Aggressive Oaks Weak on Defense

AGGRESSIVE OAKS WEAK ON DEFENSE Al C. Joy of the Examiner, after due scrutiny, sized up the Oaks in this manner: man-ner: "Howard has a fast, aggressive club together that will get runs. Rowdy Elliott, El-liott, Jack Roche, Bill Stumpf, Rod Murphy, Mur-phy, Denny Wilie, Billy Lane and Hack Miller are as nifty a collection of hitters ns any one ball club in the league can muster. Hap Morse, leading candidate for the second-base job, looks to be a fair hitter himself. Murphy, Wilie, Lane, Miller, Stumpf and Morse hnve more than the average speed. And Elliott, Murphy and Wilie are fighters who bring to the Oaks the 'pep' and the never-say-die p!rit they have long been lacking "On sheer ability and aggressiveness they figure as a run-getting club, which is more than one lias been ble to say for the Oaks for many a season. ."But the club has its weakness at that. It is not going to be a strong defensive club. The pitching staff looks decidedly wabbly, although that can mot be determined deter-mined until the regular playing season starts. "In .the humble opinion of the writer, Oakland looks to be the best of the northern north-ern clubs as they stand at present, with) the possible exception of Sacramento. Portland and Salt Lake are yet to be fully organized. Ran Francisco is better than Oakland in its pitching staff, better at first, second and short, much weaker at third and behind the bat. And, frankly, frank-ly, yours truly would ra ther have the Oakland outfield trio of Wilie, Iane and Miiler than the San Francisco combination combina-tion of Schaller, Harper and Fitzgerald."